


Taking the fall

by restlessAnatomy



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Smoking, nitori whoda thunk it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 02:01:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/restlessAnatomy/pseuds/restlessAnatomy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a prompt from marukaprompts tumblr: "Seijuro finds a packet of cigarettes in Nitori's locker (either Nitori has taken up smoking or some guys who are bullying him placed them there) and Rin takes the blame for him"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking the fall

**Author's Note:**

> i realised halfway through that having them be in third + second year now Mikoshiba would have graduated but let's just. say that he's a teacher aide now. yeah. shhhh. set in the same canon as when granted a second chance, but it's not really required reading.

Matsuoka Rin had never been observant, and as a result, the entire break passes without him realizing something is being kept from him.

Summer passes in a blur of sun-kissed skin, endless nights of sleepovers, group outings. The shameful hang of his head as he confesses his troubles to his sister in the wee hours of the morning, a week before school resumes.

Waking up to Aiichirou’s body pressed into his every weekend.

Their routine has been established for a while now; when he feels the dark tide rushing over himself, he only has to look up to see that ever-present hand held out to him, pulling him out of the deepest trenches and back into himself. And he makes sure to keep a close eye on him in return, to lift him up to his feet when he refuses to admit vulnerability.

They talk over instant messenger on the days he’s at home, as he’s wary of accepting calls with the paper-thin walls in mind. Rin trusts his assertions that things are alright, but he still finds himself nervous as he runs his eyes over what he can see of his body, dreading blooms of purple.

He never sees it, thank Christ.

He waits at the bus stop every Friday, smiling when he sees the bus pull up to the curb and spit out his blue-eyed boy. They get dinner at the ramen shop down the block, and Rin carries Aiichirou’s bag when they make the trek to his home.

He watches with pride as Aiichirou swallows the familial affection that he’s so starved of, thankful that he was accepted so readily into his own fragmented family. Aiichirou is a little surprised at his family’s acceptance of him, of _them_ ; Rin just shrugs and explains that it was never a big deal to them, that they’ve been exposed to all walks of life from a very young age.

The weekends are their time, and the other guys respect that –Aiichirou can go out during the week as he pleases, and they all spend most days together, but the weekends belong to Rin. He’s aware that the other guys have similar arrangements of their own, so it doesn’t make too much of an impact.

So with things as they are, he doesn’t notice that Aiichirou is keeping a secret until they return to school.

-

“I’m back.” He calls, shutting the door behind him and shucking his sweaty singlet onto the floor of the room. He’s just returned from a night-time jog, and he wants to spend the remainder of the night doing something other than help him study, for a change; Aiichirou’s sadistic English teacher has ordered an essay the week of their return, much to his dismay.

The room is empty, but Aiichirou’s laptop sits on the desk in the corner, still lit. Rin frowns, casting his eyes around the room, wondering if he’s in the bathroom, when he notices the balcony door is open.

“Ai?” He asks, stepping outside.

Aiichirou squawks, shoving a hand behind his back. “S-Senpai! That was a fast jog!”

He shrugs, wondering why he’s making such a fuss about being found outside. “There wasn’t much of a queue at the convenience sto-“ He stops in the middle of his sentence, noticing an odd mist rising from the other’s mouth. As they’re still in the dregs of summer, it’s definitely not mist from the heat of his breath.

“Ai,” He says, slowly, face blank. “Are you smoking?”

Aiichirou lets out a wail, covering his face with his hands – one of them clasping a cigarette. “ _Yes,_ Senpai… I know it’s bad, okay, I just-“ For once, words fail him. He slits his fingers open, staring up at Rin like a deer caught in headlights.

Rin grunts, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Don’t look so scared, _shit_ , I’m not going to berate you. I’m hardly one to talk about self-destructive habits.” His mouth cocks sourly as he references those horrific early months. “Though, why?”

Aiichirou shrugs, staring down at his feet. “Well. It’s a pathetic excuse, but… being home made me so anxious, I started it again. The convenience store down the road from my house has no problem selling them to me,” He adds in explanation, “Since _he’s_ usually too drunk to go and get his own.”

Rin nods, leaning against the guard rail. “Fair enough.” He watches Aiichirou take a shaky drag, spilling ash down his shirt. “I’m guessing you don’t need me to tell you that it’s going to impact your swimming”

He hangs his head, face glowing red in shame. “No. Yes. I’ll try to stop. It’ll be easier now that we’re here.”

Rin nods, reaching over to cup his cheeks, squeeze them. Even now that he’s grown more confident in expressing emotions, they often revert to this, especially in public. It finally brings a smile to Aiichirou’s face.

“I’ll help you with it.” And with that, he returns inside, lights a scented candle to chase away the stale smell that’s wafted in. “And brush your teeth after that. I don’t want to taste your smoke breath.”

Aiichirou’s giggle is muffled through the glass. “Alright, Rin-senpai.”

-

It doesn’t go away as easily as that, however.

“Nitori,” Seijuro growls, arms crossed over his chest, foot tapping an erratic beat at the locker room floor.  “What is that?”

“What is what, captain?” Aiichirou counters politely, halfway through buttoning his shirt.

“That.” He taps his finger against something in his locker, causing him to squeak. Rin looks over as Aiichirou mumbles something.

“ _What_?” Seijuro repeats, cupping a hand obstinately around his ear. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“It’s… it’s a packet of cigarettes.” Aiichirou mumbles, voice quivering.

Several conversations drop dead at the sound of this, and even more heads turn to gawp at him. A whisper of _“Who would have thought?”_ wafts Rin’s way, _“That little kid, smoking?”_

“And why are they there?” Seemingly unaware of the audience, Seijurou’s voice continues to blare through the locker room. Rin grits his teeth in annoyance. He was a good guy, but his particular method of dealing with delicate issues like this could definitely use some finesse.

Aiichirou, in his defense, was handling fairly well under the pressure, though Rin could see the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. “They’re there bec-“

“Because they’re mine.” Rin butts in, shrugging his shoulders casually. He almost, _almost_ laughs at the combined expressions of Aiichirou and the captain, but thankfully manages to keep his compsure.

“What?” Seijurou  demands, the sharpness of his tone increasing. “Do you realize the toll this will have on your performance? What are they even doing in Nitori’s locker?”

Rin shrugs again, purposely avoiding the frantic-eyed gaze and flailing hands. “I keep half my shit in his locker, anyway,” He drawls, crossing his arms behind his head. “Clearly I should have hidden them better.”

“You think you’re cool, Matsuoka? Acting all blasé about this?” Seijuro’s face is set in hard lines as he points in the general direction of the track field. “A hundred laps. And you bet your ass you’re going to be in detention for a month after I see the principal about this.”

Rin yawns, moving forward to take his gym shoes from Aiichirou’s locker; he really did keep most of his crap in there, truth be told. “Why not just kick me off the team?”

He swears he can see Seijuro’s eye twitch. “Because you’re the best one we have. Now get moving or I’ll reconsider even that.” As Rin turns to leave, he snatches the packet of cigarettes up, looks inside. “And I’ll be flushing these.”

Rin shoots Aiichirou an apologetic look, mouths _I’m sorry_ before letting the door swing shut behind him. Later, when he’s completed the laps, he sits down in the middle of the field and sends him a text message.

_I’ll buy you another packet. Just don’t keep them in your fucking locker next time._

-

Seijuro makes good on his threat, and Rin has detention every afternoon for a month.

Today, he was given the reprehensible task of scrubbing the toilets in the staff room. _You would think the teachers’ bathroom would be cleaner_ , he thinks, wrinkling his nose in disgust. He didn’t want to even think about how this much shit managed to cake itself onto the bowl.

He hitches the cologne-doused scarf up over his nose again, continuing to scrub. He’s a bit annoyed that he’s here, even though he doesn’t regret taking the heat for Ai. Had he confessed, undoubtedly Seijuro would have kicked him off the team; he hates himself to even think this, but Aiichirou is a more expendable member. He brings a sense of belonging to a lot of the boys there, and is renowned for being motivational, but ultimately Seijuro cares about times.

Though he’s been stuck with the most disgusting, menial tasks since day one of his detention, he doesn’t really mind. He considers this atonement for the shitty way he treated Ai during the beginning – cleaning up literal shit.

_What a way to begin my final year._

He zones out and goes through the motions, repressing gags and not really paying attention to the hushed mumble of voices traveling through the doors from the staff room – until he hears a familiar voice.

 _Is that- ?_ He drops the brush, making his way over to press his ear against the door. Fragments of the conversation waft through the heavy wood.

“...took the blame, but the truth is, captain…”

“WHAT? Why on… take so long to own up… two weeks, Nitori…”

Gritting his teeth, Rin opens the door. Standing alone in the staff room are Seijuro and Ai, the former looking extremely harassed, running a hand through his hair. The latter was standing his ground, calm expression belied by the subtle tremble of his hands.

Not pretending he hadn’t overheard, he pushes his way between the two of them. “What the hell, Ai?”

He meets Rin’s eyes squarely, smiling apologetically. “I’m sorry, senpai, I couldn’t let you do this any longer. It’s my own transgression, so I can’t allow you to continue to take my punishment.” And he turns abruptly back to the captain, bowing forward from the waist and clasping his hands in front of his head.

“Please absolve Rin-senpai from his detentions and give them to me! Kick me off the swim team, give me six months of detention, whatever you choose!”

Rin feels a bead of sweat form on his forehead as Seijuro contemplates Ai, doing the thing where he thinks while staring directly at someone, intimidating them into a quivering mess.

Finally, Seijuro exhales a barky laugh, shaking his head. “Alright. Matsuoka, you’re relieved of your detentions. Nitori, I expect you to make up the time he wasted on top of a month of detention. And you better improve your time by at least four seconds by the end of the month.”

Aiichirou blinks at him in confusion; so does Rin. “Why…”

“You’re not our star swimmer, but you’re improving. I want to see what you can do. And kick that filthy habit, got it? Or you really _will_ be off the team.”

Then he turns to Rin.

“Leave your big brother complex in the bedroom, Matsuoka.” He quirks an eyebrow, snickers, turns to leave. “Nitori, you finish cleaning that bathroom!”

God, he’s _definitely_ never letting Gou go on a date with him now.

-

Later that night, when Aiichirou is on the balcony, finishing the last cigarette in his packet, Rin comes out to join him.

“Why did you own up?” He asks, sitting on the guard rail. “I was alright with taking the punishment for you. You shouldn’t have risked being thrown off.”

Aiichirou doesn’t answer for a few moments, gazing up at the moon. “I know. But it’s my habit, not yours. It didn’t seem fair, regardless of how willing you are.” He shrugs, finally looking over at him. “But thanks for doing it. Sorry for not owning up to the captain earlier.”

Rin nods, falling silent. He watches the abstract shapes of smoke tear apart in the slight breeze, and jolts when Aiichirou speaks again. “This is it. I’m not going to buy any more. So I’m sorry in advance if I’m grumpy for a while, senpai.”

Rin’s chest swells with pride and he leans over, grabbing his face, and presses his lips against Aiichirou’s- only to immediately break apart, spitting. “Ugh! Thank god! That tastes terrible! How can you inhale that shit so easily?”

Aiichirou snorts, watching Rin dramatically wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. “I can think of worse things that have been in my mouth, honestly.” He punctuates this with a wiggle of his eyebrows, causing Rin to choke.

Flushing, Rin shakes his head at him. “How the hell did I ever think you were innocent. I need mouthwash. _Ugh._ ”

He hears him laughing, muffled by glass and wood. When he smiles, mouthwash dribbles down his chin and onto his chest.

 


End file.
